Go back to previous page
Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 2342
Message ID: 19
#19, RE: UF's 25th anniversary...
Posted by Mercutio on Nov-11-16 at 11:35 AM
In response to message #7
LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-16 AT 11:37 AM (EST)
 
> I mean, genetics
>aside, I've lived in Red Maine for most of my life. How am I not a
>racist redneck fuck too?)

Are you guys really that red up there anymore?

As near as I can tell, Millinocket itself, though it went Trump this year, went for Obama in both 2012 and 2008. Precinct-level data is hard to come by for other years, but even if Millinocket itself didn't, Penobscot County, which doesn't look like what you'd call a cosmopolitan urban area to me, went for Obama twice, went for KERRY of all people who you'd think would be poison out there, and went for Clinton twice. (How do you go for Kerry and not Gore? The mind boggles.)

>Anyway, the point is, she wants all of that, and she's convinced that
>Mr. Chump will give it to her.

The editors would also have accepted "Il douche" as an acceptable nom-de-trump.

>Also, I think Democratic primary voters grievously
>underestimated how very much, and for how very long, many people have
>hated the Clintons. They kept it in mind in 2008, which is why they
>went with Barry even though at the time, he seemed like an even longer
>shot. Figured it had been long enough this time. Silly of them. It
>will never have been long enough.

You know, Ben, thanks for being clear-eyed about what happened there.

I've seen a fair amount of yelling the last few... well, months, really, about how Clinton was "installed" as the Democratic Candidate. Like, her nomination is 100% due to the fact that a sinister cabal met in a room somewhere and decided she would be the nominee and anyone else would be destroyed. That the pure and virtuous rank and file got rooked by a corrupt establishment, who were pouring forged ballots into boxes all across New York state which is totally why Bernie Sanders didn't win against our immensely popular former Senator who was endorsed by our immensely popular current Senators here.

And, well... no. Did the DNC have its thumb on the scale? Yeah, a bit. That was total bullshit, people got fired and they deserved it. Did it have its thumb on the scale to the tune of three million votes? It did not.

Hillary Clinton is and always has been popular in the Democratic Party. At all levels. Was nominating her a mistake? Yeah, probably. But it was a mistake 55% of the party made. I say that as a proud Sandernista who rode that train to the end of the track and beyond. This screwup, to the extent it was a screwup, is on all of us.

>Also also, the numbers suggest that she appealed to too many people
>who, possibly because consumed by their postmodern ennui, didn't
>bother voting for her.

This, in my opinion, was the 'best worst case' scenario. That is, if we were going to lose, this is the least horrible way.

Trump won the election with fewer votes than Romney got when he lost. That's super bad. You know what would have been worse? If Clinton had got, say, a couple million more votes than Obama did, and Trump had walloped her by an extra six or seven million on top of that.

That would have been nightmarish. It would have meant "holy shit, there really is a missing army of super racist fucknuts who were just waiting to crawl out of the woodpile." There'd have been no coping with that.

So it looks like a large part of the Obama coalition just... sat at home.

And that has led me to an uncomfortable thought. I have always rejected the notion that policy doesn't matter, that Presidential elections are just beauty contests. But in the wake of this one... well, I got to thinking. Has there been a Presidential election in the modern era in which the winner wasn't either sparklingly charismatic, a demagogue, or both?

Yes, of course. Bush the Elder. Carter. Nixon. LBJ.

Okay. All those boring nerds ran against people who were also boring nerds. Has there been an election in which the boring nerd beat the charismatic demagogue?

... holy shit, there hasn't been.

Is this where we're at as a country? Where in any contest between a showman and a person of substance, the showman automatically wins? Where the most important quality that the leader of the free world can have is that they send a thrill up the leg of people who watch them on TV and think "Hey, I think they just winked at me." Is the only reason Barack Obama got two terms is because people thought it was the next best thing to making Morgan Freeman President?

I'm prepared to deal with that if its the case but mister I do not have to like it.

>Also also also, the fucking Electoral College strikes again.

Not just the EC. More people voted for a Democratic house and a Democratic Senate than the other way around. Result: Republican Congress.

Same thing happened in 2014. More people voted for Democrats than Republicans. Result? Republicans.

I'm not particularly attached to the Democratic Party qua the Democratic Party. I'm committed to it insofar as coalition politics are essential, and the Democratic coalition seems to reflect my values and also know how to actually run the country. I've no tribal affiliation, indeed I'm mad at them (us?) more often than not.

But god dammit, if you win, you should get to govern. That is the deal!

-Merc
Keep Rat